Fuller, Richard Buckminster

Fuller, Richard Buckminster (1895–1983). American inventor of the Dymaxion House (1927), evolved from aircraft and motor-car construction techniques, intended for mass-production, and of the prefabricated modular bathroom (1929—patented 1936). While he was much concerned with the design of cheap, industrialized living-units, he also developed means of covering large areas by means of geodesic domes constructed on the spaceframe principle, using timber, plywood, metal, concrete, and other materials. These domes did not require elaborate foundations as their structural integrity was such that they only needed to be anchored to the ground. His US Pavilion at the International Exposition, Montréal, Canada (1967), was an exemplar. This system could enable huge clear-span structures to be made, and therefore whole cities could be roofed over, with considerable possibilities for environmental control and saving of energy. A collection of his somewhat breathless writings was published in 1970.

Bibliography

Baldwin (1996);
Fuller (1971, 1975, 1979, 1981);
A. Hatch (1974);
Krausse & Lichtenstein (eds.) (1999);
R. Marks (1973);
McHale (1962);
Pawley (1990a);
D. W. Robertson (1974);
Sieden (1989);
Vance (1987);
J. Ward & and Tomkins (1984)